The Progression of our Salvation

In today’s Gospel, Mark 4: 35-41, we are presented with the story of Jesus’  disciples detaching from the crowd by crossing to the other side of the lake.  It is evening and they take Jesus with them.  Shortly after getting into the boat, ”a violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat so that it was already filling up.”  Jesus, in the meantime, fell asleep in the stern, probably dead tired from a very long day in ministry.  The disciples are frantic as the boat fills up with water and wake Jesus, saying: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus wakes up, rebukes the wind and says to the sea, “Quiet! Be still.” And the wind and the sea obey Jesus’ command and cease their stormy terror!  “Where is your faith,” Jesus asks the disciples. “Why are you terrified?”

We may be entering one of the stormiest times of U.S. history. And Jesus asks us the same question: ´”Where is your faith?” “Why are you terrified?”   Those are the questions  you and I are faced with in the storms of life-- our personal life, the life of our families, our ecclesial life, the political life of our country, the threats from other countries or the actions we take as a nation that could lead to violence toward us from other countries or to other countries abandoning us, as we “vow” to isolate ourselves from our neighbors around the world.

Jesus, and Jesus alone, is our Savior. He is aware of the times we are treading water, when “violent squalls” come up and waves are breaking over the “boat” of our lives. Jesus/God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  What God has done to bring the Chosen People to the Promised Land and what Jesus had done to save the disciples in the boat and us through His death on Calvary is what God will do for us in 2017 and beyond! What is happening, I believe, is not about any political figure or world leader anymore than it was about politics in Jesus’ earthly life. It is about God working out our salvation in Christ Jesus! 

Standing up for what we believe

In today’s first reading, Acts 5: 27-33, Peter and John, when commanded by the high priest to stop teaching about Jesus, responded: Absolutely not!  “We must obey God rather than [human beings].”

How do we know that we are obeying God?  How did Peter and John know? How did Mary, Jesus’ mother, know? How did Mary of Magdala know? The first answer is that  the Risen Lord revealed Himself personally to each of them and they also knew Him before His resurrection.  Each received the gift of recognizing God’s way of making Himself known, whether prior to or following the Resurrection.  The person knows “it is the Lord” (Jn 21:7) and thus is open to following His will—words may not be able to explain that kind of knowing.  Secondly, the individual has developed a deeply personal relationship with God, as with a best friend. That means spending time with God, conversing with God in prayer, contemplating  the Scriptures, and sharing the intimacy of our lives with God on a regular basis. What do I mean? Letting God know what I am thinking and feeling, what excites,bothers or hurts me; what I am desiring, what challenges me, what I am afraid of, etc. It also means asking God for advice, for His counsel and requesting the Spirit to send the gifts of the Spirit.  Thirdly,  one needs to seek knowledge from above and sit at the Fountain of Living Water, drinking of that “water” that quenches the spirit. That is done through such activities as holy or spiritual reading, study of our faith and thus arriving at a deeper and deeper understanding of the faith (such as studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the encyclicals of the Popes, the social teachings of the Church, etc.); in short, seeking knowledge that nurtures the spiritual life and one’s faith life. Fourthly, we need to be growing in love of self and others, reaching out to the poor and marginalized, giving of our time, talent and energy to make the world, and ourselves (personal conversion, forgiveness and repentence) a better place that puts God first. If we do these things, our openness to and knowing God’s will becomes well tuned as, for instance, in the case, of St. Francis of Assisi, Ven. Mother Frances Streitel (the Foundress of my religious community),  Mother Teresa of Calcutta,  Martin Luther King, St. Kateri Tekawitha, Mother Seton,  and so many others.